Mother's Day, 14th March: Go on, spoil her with some of her favourite things. Sit her down to a sumptuous Sunday lunch of Riverford beef and local vegetables - or pick up all the ingredients for a delicious afternoon tea. Come on in, we've got it all.

First some booze news and a recommendation for Mother’s Day drinking...

In the past the Farm Shop newsletter often seemed like a version of ‘The Dipso’s Times’ so more recently I have been keeping it to a minimum. However I went to a tasting of James Millton’s biodynamic Kiwi wines and one wine in particular, Crazy by Nature, Cosmos Red was so good that it had to have star billing. The Crazy by Nature bit comes from the longevity of James Millton’s commitment to biodynamic viticulture - twenty five years ago everyone said he was crazy. His Chenin Blanc is often said to be the best outside the Loire but the Cosmos blend of Syrah and Malbec with a dash of Viognier is outstanding. “A bold blend of varieties that have been proven to grow well in the Gisborne region. With a backbone of Malbec, the wild tang of Syrah for spice, the soft fruity notes of Viognier. This is a juicy, velvety textured red wine.” Like all Kiwi wines, it ain’t plonk, but at £10.95, or two for £20, it would be a worthy accompaniment for the Easter lamb. Two bottles should also have the desired effect on Mother’s Day.

Also new, and considerably more local, is Sampford Courtenay Cider from mid Devon. On a special introductory offer of £3.39 (from £3.99) it is as close to perfection on the cider front as I have come across since we stopped selling Dunkerton’s Vintage a couple of years ago. The ‘Grolsch’ style bottle alone is worth a quid.

Changes afoot at Staverton...

Staverton shoppers will have noticed some progress with the shop improvements. After the car park, the new entrance is stage one of four, the next being reorganizing the butchery, followed by extending the new entrance/Dutch barn over the existing veg area. This is scheduled to happen over the next three months so we should be opening up the new entrance sometime in the early summer.

Hot stuff

Paul’s extra herby harissa paste is another product from the kitchen that, because of shelf-life and packaging issues, doesn’t find its way to the shops in its original form. A far cry from most red hot, mass-produced offerings it makes a great ready-made paste for all things vaguely North African. It makes a damned tasty merguez meatball and, if you’ve tried my soup recently, you’ll know that it helps to make a great parsnip soup. We have also been roasting it with grade out butternut squash, of which there are plenty at the moment, and mixing with hummus. Delicious! Paul and the kitchen crew have also been making an excellent, bog standard, unponcified onion marmalade. Not a caramelised onion, shallot, clove of garlic or spoon of redcurrant jelly in sight - just onions, vinegar and sugar. All you have to do is spoon it onto some bangers and bung them in the oven. It will be in the shops soon with our new labels.